Hollywood's Conservative Age
In the early depression 1930-33, Hollywood produced films the challenged traditional values, such as Public Enemy and Frankenstein. However, with the creation of the Breen Office and the Production Code in 1934, Hollywood shifted from attack to defense, and affirmed traditional values in the era 1934-46 that became known as the second Golden Age.
Disney after Three Little Pigs
- Lullaby Land, Totoise & Hare, Flying Mouse, Pluto's Judgement Day
- imagineering (structure all elements) and idealization (rules, boundaries, order) rather than free fantasy
Capra after It Happened One Night
- Mr. Deeds, Mr. Smith, Meet John Doe, Lost Horizon, You Can't Take It With You
- affirmation of pastoral, small town values, healing, satisfying
- an idealized America of perfect unity
- "true" leaders helped against "false" leaders by the "people"
- new genre of romantic comedy - personal relationships and marriages and social classes united after division
Hollywood's world-wide exports
- production value, happy ending, glamor, social satisfaction, lifestyles in demand by foreign audiences
Hollywood's power structure
- new moguls Irving Thalberg, David Selznick, Darryl Zanuck promoted traditional culture. "dignified, elevated, respectable pictures"
- Louella Parsons for Hearst, Hedda Hopper were a "powerful force of control" through the gossip column
- MGM's Too Hot to Handle was too zany, exploitive, a product of corporate writing
- Sammy Glick in What Makes Sammy Run? novel
Hollywood's Self-Censorship
- Production Code of 1930 by Martin Quigley and Fr. Daniel Lord
- Catholic Legion of Decency threat of 1934 boycott
- Hays Office created Production Code Administration headed by Joseph Breen
- production Code of 1934 based on Quigley-Lord formula of "compensating moral value" - "evil and good are never to be confused"
Screwball comedies
- supported the status quo (not social chaos), celebrated sanctity of marriage (not careers or divorce), class distinction (not class conflict), gender roles (not gold diggers)
- characters usually wealthy, wacky behavior showed them funny and lovable and harmless
- lively, carefree, pleasure-loving style (not sex or violence)
G-Man films
- Jimmie Cagney in G-Man (1935) joins FBI
- Fred MacMurray in Texas Rangers (1936) was ex-outlaw
- E.G. Robinson in Bullets or Ballots (1936)
Family films
- Mickey Rooney as child actor in Hardy Boys
- Lassie, Lew Ayres in Young Dr. Kildare for MGM
- Spencer Tracy won 1938 Best Actor for Boys Town
Historical films
- Mutiny on the Bounty won 1938 Best Picture for Irving Thalberg and MGM
- David Selznick made David Copperfield 1935 from his father's favorite novel; also Gone With the Wind won 1939 Best Picture
- Gary Cooper in Sgt. York 1941
Musicals
- Nelson Eddy & Jeanette McDonald for MGM
- Fred Astair & Ginger Rogers for RKO
- child star Judy Garland sings to Clark Gable in 1938 Broadway Melody and has her breasts strapped down in 1939 Wizard of Oz
- all men handsome, all women beautiful, all endings happy
War Films
- World War II combat film began after Dec. 7, 1941
- Bataan and Capra's Why We Fight
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